


Pain is just a consequence of love

by itswheremydemonshide10



Series: 7 Days of Robron Fics [2]
Category: Emmerdale, robron
Genre: (latter only referenced), Blood, Car Accidents, Gun Violence, M/M, Major Character Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2017-07-11
Packaged: 2018-11-29 23:46:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11451558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itswheremydemonshide10/pseuds/itswheremydemonshide10
Summary: For a change, it's Robert who ends up in Hotten General Hospital.





	Pain is just a consequence of love

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 7 Days of Robron: Day 2 – Angst + “I won’t let you”  
> There may be some (completely unintentional) similarities to recent traumatic events here in the UK. If you would like any more specific warnings then just ask! Or feel free to skip this fic completely, it’s cool!

The clock ticks, the machines beep, and the harsh strip light above them buzzes. The sounds seem far too loud for the otherwise silent room and Aaron has to resist the temptation to smash the damn things, because his head feels like it’s going to burst with how badly it’s throbbing.

The dread keeps overwhelming him, cold rushes of adrenaline shooting through his veins. He doesn’t let go of Robert’s hand, keeps running his thumb over his husband’s wedding ring, over and over again, as though that alone would be enough to sustain him.

Robert’s eyes are closed, eyelashes delicate and still. They seem to be the only parts of him that are unharmed, the rest of him a bloody, bruised, broken mess. Bandages cover the worst of his injuries, but it doesn’t help because Aaron feels like he can’t see Robert as he is right now. In his mind, all he can see is blood – so much blood – and gasping breaths. Robert’s eyes had been terrified when they had locked on his own, all pretence of strength gone, his grip on Aaron’s shirt growing weaker and weaker.

It was Lachlan, because of course it was. Not content with gunning down his own grandfather (again), he’d gotten into that stupid fucking car Chrissie had bought him and gone on a drunken rampage. Speeding and swerving through the village, not caring as he accidently knocked down innocent people, caring even less when he knocked certain people down deliberately. Robert being one of the latter.

Aaron hadn’t seen it happen because they had been arguing after leaving the cafe, and he had turned around to head back to the Mill, Robert wandering off in the opposite direction. Both of them intending to cool down for a bit before they attempted to sort things out – something that Aaron’s counsellor had suggested. But Aaron heard it, the screech of too fast rubber on tarmac, the almighty crashing sound, the smashing of glass. Before he’d even turned around his stomach felt like it had dropped out of his body, the bile already burning his throat – it was as though his body already knew what had happened, his mind scrambling to keep up.

The scene had been one of utter devastation, the car had ploughed into the front of the café where just seconds before people had been sitting at tables, drinking coffee, talking, and enjoying the morning sunshine, just a normal day.

Now the street was full of smoke, twisted metal and smashed glass. People began screaming, crying, begging for help. But Aaron had only one though in his mind.

Robert.

He had been trapped between the car and what remained of the front wall of the café, the right side of his face drenched in blood from a wound on his head and the weight of the car crushing into his chest, Aaron’s attempts to shift the weight proved futile.

From the second he had first caught sight of Robert, to the moment he was loaded into the back of the ambulance, had been a blur to Aaron, his memories hazy and confused, coming back to him gradually in snippets. Robert’s terrified face, the way he had struggled to speak, telling Aaron that he was sorry, that he loved him and that he hadn’t wanted to cause an argument – and god Aaron couldn’t even remember what the argument had been about, something petty and insignificant no doubt.

Aaron remembers that he had sat with Robert, as close as the wreckage had allowed him to get, until the paramedics arrived, even as voices shouted at him about leaking petrol and danger. He had held Robert’s hand, had used his hoodie to try to stem the incessant blood flow that was staining Robert’s beautiful blonde hair scarlet, he’d kept him awake with his incoherent rambling that had increasingly sounded like desperate begging.

“You’re going to be ok Robert, alright? You have to be, because you can’t leave me – we’re rubbish without each other, remember? You…you can’t go… I need ya.”

When Robert had been rushed to surgery, the nurse had taken pity on Aaron and given him a jumper from the lost property bin to replace his own blood soaked one, then guided him to a bathroom to clean himself up.

As he sat by Robert’s bedside now, he could still see the remnants of red under his fingernails, the phantom stench of blood turning his stomach even worse than the antiseptic smell of the hospital ward.

Vic and Diane were somewhere in the hospital, being comforted by Chas. Aaron knows he should speak to them, because they’re suffering too, but he can’t bring himself to do it. Doesn’t know where he’d even begin looking for the strength to do normal things, like talking and sleeping and eating. Not until Robert wakes up, not until he knows for sure that his husband is going to be ok.

So instead he keeps sitting by the bed. He keeps holding Robert’s hand. And he keeps up his quiet refrain through the tears.

“You’re not going anywhere… I won’t let you.”


End file.
